New York, New York - Water scarcity is a fact of life for 700 million people around the world, a figure that could rise to more than three billion by 2025, according to the United Nations. In a message today marking World Water Day UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for integrated cross-border water management since many of the world's rivers and aquifers are shared among countries.

"Available supplies are under great duress as a result of high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management practices, pollution, inadequate investment in infrastructure and low efficiency in water-use," said Ban.

"Yet even more water will be needed in the future - to grow food, to provide clean drinking water and sanitation services, to operate industries and to support expanding cities," he said. "The water-supply-demand gap is likely to grow wider still, threatening economic and social development and environmental sustainability."

"The way forward is clear," said the secretary-general, "strengthening institutional capacity and governance at all levels, promoting more technology transfer, mobilizing more financial resources, and scaling up good practices and lessons learned."

With the current popularity of privatization in this country, I don't see the United States joining the call for working for the welfare of all people. Just the ban on funding for birth control programs Bush put into effect the day he started as pResident shows how much he cares about poor people. If he doesn't want them to have access to birth control, I can't see him wanting them to have access to clean water...